Finca Ocotal Santa Ana - Honduras

The story of Finca El Ocotal begins when current owner, Santos Guevara Lopez, migrated from the small town of San Antonio Juniguara to the urban centre of Marcala La Paz in his youth. By 1980 he had achieved a place in the 10th infantry battalion, where he remained for five years; however, he always wanted to return back to the countryside.

After he left the army, he purchased a small piece of land in the community of Sácate Blanco, Santa Ana and began using his savings to sow coffee. Santos went about this process diligently, constantly putting his all into his new coffee farm. He relied heavily on the help of his wife and daughter, and today, they have together achieved a small but meticulously maintained plantation of 100% Pacas variety coffee trees, all of which are in excellent health.

Processing is very important to Santos’s goal of improving the quality of his coffee. During the harvest, coffee is selectively hand harvested, with only the ripest cherries being picked at each pass. After picking, the coffee is delivered to the farm’s small wet mill, where it is pulped on the same day it is picked. After pulping, the coffee is fermented for approximately 15 hours and then washed in clean water.

After it is fully washed, the coffee is moved to ‘saran’ netting, where the parchment coffee will dry slowly over the course of the next 20 days or more (depending on the climate at the time). The coffee is turned regularly to ensure even drying.